Get Creative at the Beach!

This month I’ve been thinking about the ways the beach can inspire us. It can be a great place to go to clear your mind as you listen to the sound of the waves, and the beautiful scenery can give you ideas for art projects. As well as that, the beach is full of natural resources that you can use in your art.

Creative Projects Inspired by the Beach

• Paint a picture of the beach and mix some sand in with your paint to create a realistic, grainy texture.
• Paint pictures onto pebbles and then glaze them with varnish to make paperweights or door-stoppers.
• Carefully make small holes in some seashells and thread string through to create a unique necklace or bracelet or even a hanging ornament.
• Listen to the sound of the waves and let it inspire you to write a poem with alliterative sounds.
• Make a collage using small pebbles, shells and twigs.
• Build a detailed sand castle or sand sculpture and decorate it with shells, feathers and anything else you might find.
• Use driftwood and shells to decorate a mirror or picture frame using hot glue.
• Draw a picture or write a poem in the sand then take a photograph of it.
• Decorate a birthday cake or cupcakes with a beach theme. You could use a small sandcastle bucket as a mould and crumble biscuits up to make realistic looking sand. You could also use seashell shaped chocolates or make waves with coloured icing. Here’s a good sandcastle cake recipe.
• Watch some videos of sand drawing and then have a go yourself and film the result.
• Make your own maracas by filling some empty plastic bottles with sand or small pebbles and see what sounds you can create.

This is a piece of digital art I did in March 2010. I wrote the words ‘creative therapy’ in the sand at a beach in Yorkshire and then blended the photograph with stock resources in Photoshop. 

Stock resources used:
Beach by mmpezzotti